Abstract
Application of fertilizer nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) in excess of crop requirement causes nutritional imbalances in soil along with economic and ecological losses. The optical sensors (leaf color chart, chlorophyll meter, and GreenSeeker) help guide real-time N topdressing decisions and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) further improve nutrient uptake from soil. A four-year field study was conducted to improve N- and P-use efficiencies in maize using different optical sensing tools and coating seeds with AMF. The AMF seed coating improved mycorrhizal colonization in soil. Higher mycorrhization was observed in no-P treatment; however, P fertilization and mycorrhiza inoculation diminish the effect as growth progressed from 30 to 60 days after sowing. The mycorrhizal inoculation increased grain yield by 17.1% in no-N treatment; however, the response diminishes with N fertilization. The optical sensing–based N management sustained grain yield, total N uptake, and root and plant dry weight equivalent to the soil test–based fertilizer N recommendation with the less use of 30 kg N ha−1. The respective improvement in agronomic and recovery efficiencies of applied fertilizer N up to 38.6 and 34.9% highlights the potential of optical sensing tools and the inability of soil test–based N recommendation for precision N management. Mitigated greenhouse and nitrous oxide emissions respectively by 30.7% and 29.7% further underline the prominence of replacing soil test N recommendations with optical sensing–guided N top-dressings. Sufficient inherent soil P restricts the AMF benefits in improving P-use efficiencies in maize.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Aalipour H, Nikbakht A, Ghasemi M, Amiri R (2019) Morpho-physiological and biochemical responses of two turfgrass species to arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and humic acid under water stress condition. J Soil Sci Plant Nutr 20:566–576. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42729-019-00146-4
Adholeya A, Tiwari P, Singh R (2005) Large-scale inoculum production of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi on root organs and inoculation strategies. In: Declerck S, Strullu DG, Fortin A (eds) Vitro culture of mycorrhizas. Springer, Berlin, pp 315–338
Al-Karaki GN, Hammad R (2001) Mycorrhizal influence on fruit yield and mineral content of tomato grown under salt stress. J Plant Nutr 24:1311–1323
Amanullah KHB, Shah P, Maula N, Arifullah SH (2009) Nitrogen levels and its time of application influence leaf area, height and biomass of maize planted at low and high density. Pak J Bot 41:761–768
Amirnia R, Ghiyasi M, Moghaddam SS, Rahimi A, Damalas CA, Heydarzadeh S (2019) Nitrogen-fixing soil bacteria plus mycorrhizal fungi improve seed yield and quality traits of lentil (Lens culinaris Medik). J Soil Sci Plant Nutr 19:592–602
Anonymous (2012) Package of practices for crops of Punjab – Kharif 2012. Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana
Arumugam R, Rajasekaran S, Nagarajan SM (2010) Response of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and Rhizobium inoculation on growth and chlorophyll content of Vigna unguiculata (L) Walp Var. Pusa 151. J Appl Sci Environ Manag 14:113–115
Atul-Nayyar HC, Hanson K, Germida J (2009) The arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis links N mineralization to plant demand. Mycorrhiza 19:239–246
Bagyaraj DJ, Sharma MP, Maiti D (2015) Phosphorus nutrition of crops through arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. Curr Sci 108:1288–1293
Baligar VC, Fageria NK, He H (2001) Nutrient use efficiency in plants. Commun Soil Sci Plant Anal 32:921–950
Bhatia A, Pathak H, Jain N, Singh PK, Tomer R (2012) Greenhouse gas mitigation in rice–wheat system with leaf color chart-based urea application. Environ Monit Assess 184:3095–3107
Bijay-Singh, Sharma RK, Jaspreet-Kaur, Jat ML, Martin KL, Yadvinder-Singh, Varinderpal-Singh, Chandna P, Choudhary OP, Gupta RK, Thind HS, Jagmohan-Singh, Uppal HS, Khurana HS, Ajay-Kumar, Uppal RK, Vashistha M, Raun WR, Gupta R (2011) Assessment of the nitrogen management strategy using an optical sensor for irrigated wheat. Agron Sust Dev 31:589–603
Bijay-Singh, Varinderpal-Singh, Yadvinder-Singh, Thind HS, Ajay-Kumar, Satinderpal-Singh, Choudhary OP, Gupta RK, Vashistha M (2013) Supplementing fertilizer nitrogen application to irrigated wheat at maximum tillering stage using chlorophyll meter and optical sensor. Agric Res 2:81–89
Chien SH, Teixeira LA, Cantarella H, Rehm GW, Grant CA, Gearhart MM (2016) Agronomic effectiveness of granular nitrogen/phosphorus fertilizers containing elemental sulfur with and without ammonium sulfate: a review. Agron J 108:1203–1213
Colla G, Rouphael Y, Bonini P, Cardarelli M (2015) Coating seeds with endophytic fungi enhances growth, nutrient uptake, yield and grain quality of winter wheat. Intern J Plant Prod 9:171–190
Collins CD, Foster BL (2009) Community-level consequences of mycorrhizae depend on phosphorus availability. Ecology 90:2567–2576
Colomb V (2013) Selection of appropriate calculators for landscape-scale greenhouse gas assessment for agriculture and forestry. Environ Res Lett 8:015029
Dhillon J, Torres G, Driver E, Figueiredo B, Raun WR (2017) World phosphorus use efficiency in cereal crops. Agron J 109:1–8
FAO (2019) Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. FAOSTAT, http://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/QC
Feliciano D, Nayak DR, Vetter SH, Hillier J (2017) CCAFS-MOT - a tool for farmers, extension services and policy-advisors to identify mitigation options for agriculture. Agric Syst 154:100–111
Frey B, Schüepp H (1992) Transfer of symbiotically fixed nitrogen from berseem (Trifolium alexandrium L.) to maize via vesicular arbuscular mycorrhizal hyphae. New Phytol 122:447–454
Gavito ME, Miller MH (1998) Changes in mycorrhiza development in maize induced by crop management practices. Plant Soil 198:185–192
George E, Marschner H, Jakobsen I (1995) Role of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in uptake of phosphorus and nitrogen from soil. Crit Rev Biotechnol 15:257–270
Graham JH (2001) What do root pathogens see in mycorrhizas? New Phytol 149:357–359
Hagh ED, Mirshekari B, Ardakani MR, Farahvash F, Rejali F (2016) Optimizing phosphorus use in sustainable maize cropping via mycorrhizal inoculation. J Plant Nutr 39:1348–1356
Hall JK, Baker DE (1971) Phosphorus fixation by montmorillonite and vermiculite clays as influenced by ph and soluble aluminum. Soil Sci Soc Amer J 35:876–881
Hodge A, Fitter AH (2010) Substantial nitrogen acquisition by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi from organic material has implications for N cycling. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 107:13754–13759
Hodge A, Campbell CD, Fitter AH (2001) An arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus accelerates decomposition and acquires nitrogen directly from organic material. Nature 413:297–299
IFA (2019) International fertilizer association, Paris (France). IFASTAT, https://www.ifastat.org/databases/plant-nutrition
IPCC (2007) Climate change 2007, synthesis report. In: Pachauri RK, Reisinger A (eds) Contribution of working groups I, II and III to the fourth assessment report of the intergovernmental panel on climate change, 104. IPCC, Geneva, Switzerland
Jackson ML (1987) Soil chemical analysis. Prentice Hall of India, New Delhi (India)
Jefwa JM, Sinclair R, Maghembe JA (2006) Diversity of glomale mycorrhizal fungi in maize/sesbania intercrops and maize monocrop systems in Southern Malawi. Agrofor Syst 67:107–114
Kandhasamy N, Ravichandran KR, Thangavelu M (2020) Interactive influence of soil and plant genotypes on mycorrhizal dependency in finger millet. J Soil Sci Plant Nutr. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42729-020-00212-2
Kazemi R, Ronaghi A, Yasrebi J, Ghasemi-Fasaei R, Zarei M (2019) Effect of shrimp waste-derived biochar and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus on yield, antioxidant enzymes, and chemical composition of corn under salinity stress. J Soil Sci Plant Nutr 19:758–770
Liang LZ, Shen RF, Yi XY, Zhao XQ, Chen ZC, Chen RF, Dong XY (2009) The phosphorus requirement of Amaranthus mangostanus L. exceeds the ‘change point’ of P loss. Soil Use Manag 25:152–158
Liu A, Hamel C, Hamilton RI, Smith DL (2000) Mycorrhizae formation and nutrient uptake of new corn (Zea mays L.) hybrids with extreme canopy and leaf architecture as influenced by soil N and P levels. Plant Soil 221:157–166
McGonigle TP (1988) A numerical analysis of published field trials with vesicular-arbuscularmycorrhizal fungi. Funct Ecol 2:473–478
Merwin HD, Peech M (1950) Exchangeability of soil potassium in sand, silt and clay fractions as influenced by the nature of complementary exchangeable cations. Soil Sci Soc Amer Proc 15:125–128
Miransari M (2011) Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and nutrient uptake. Arch Microbiol 193:77–81
Olsen SR, Cole CV, Watanabe FS, Dean LA (1954) Estimation of available phosphorus in soils by extraction with sodium bicarbonate. US Department of Agriculture, Washington, DC (Circular 939)
Ortas I (2012) The effect of mycorrhizal fungal inoculation on plant yield, nutrient uptake and inoculation effectiveness under long-term field conditions. Field Crops Res 125:35–48
Phillips JM, Hayman DS (1970) Improved procedures for clearing roots and staining parasitic and vesicular arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi for rapid assessment of infection. Trans Brit Mycol Soc 55:158–161
Robertson GP, Bruulsema TW, Gehl RJ, Kanter D, Mauzerall DL, Rotz CA, Williams CO (2013) Nitrogen-climate interactions in US agriculture. Biogeochem 114:41–70
Sanyal SK, De Datta SK (1991) Chemistry of phosphorus transformation in soil. In: Advances in soil science, Springer-Verlag, New York, 16:1–120
Sapkota TB, Aryal JP, Khatri-Chhetri A, Shirsath PB, Arumugam P, Stirling CM (2018) Identifying high-yield low-emission pathways for the cereal production in South Asia. Mitig Adapt Strat Global Change 23:621–641
Sharpley AN, Foy B, Withers P (2000) Practical and innovative measures for the control of agricultural phosphorus losses to water: an overview. J Environ Qual 29:1–9
Singh BB, Jones JP (1977) Phosphorus sorption isotherm for evaluating phosphorus requirements of lettuce at five temperature regimes. Plant Soil 46:31–44
SPSS (2012) IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, version 21.0, IBM Corp., Armonk, New York
Tajini F, Trabelsi M, Drevon J (2011) Co-inoculation with Glomus intraradices and Rhizobium tropici CIAT899 increases P use efficiency for N2 fixation in the common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) under P deficiency in hydroaeroponic culture. Symbiosis 53:123–129
Tian H, Drijber RA, Zhang JL, Li XL (2013) Impact of long-term nitrogen fertilization and rotation with soybean on the diversity and phosphorus metabolism of indigenous arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi within the roots of maize (Zea mays L.). Agric Ecosys Environ 164:53–61
Varinderpal-Singh, Dhillon NS, Brar BS (2006) Effect of incorporation of crop residues and organic manures on adsorption/desorption and bio-availability of phosphate. Nutr Cycl Agroecosyst 76:95–c108
Varinderpal-Singh, Yadvinder-Singh, Bijay-Singh, Baldev-Singh, Gupta RK, Jagmohan-Singh, Ladha JK, Balasubramanian V (2007) Performance of site-specific nitrogen management for irrigated transplanted rice in northwestern India. Arch Agron Soil Sci 53:567–579
Varinderpal-Singh, Bijay-Singh, Yadvinder-Singh, Thind HS, Gupta RK (2010) Need based nitrogen management using the chlorophyll meter and leaf colour chart in rice and wheat in South Asia: a review. Nutr Cycl Agroecosyst 88:361–380
Varinderpal-Singh, Yadvinder-Singh, Bijay-Singh, Thind HS, Kumar A, Vashistha M (2011) Calibrating the leaf colour chart for need based fertilizer nitrogen management in different maize (Zea mays L.) genotypes. Field Crops Res 120:276–282
Varinderpal-Singh, Bijay-Singh, Yadvinder-Singh, Thind HS, Buttar GS, Satwinderjit Kaur, Meharban-Singh, Kaur S, Bhowmik A (2017) Site-specific fertilizer nitrogen management for timely sown irrigated wheat (Triticum aestivum L. and Triticum turgidum L. ssp. durum) genotypes. Nutr Cycl Agroecosyst 109:1–16
Varinderpal-Singh, Satwinderjit Kaur, Singh J, Kaur A, Gupta RK (2020) Rescheduling fertilizer nitrogen topdressing timings for improving productivity and mitigating N2O emissions in timely and late sown irrigated wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), Arch. Arch Agron Soil Sci, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/03650340.2020.1742327
Vassilev N, Vassileva M, Azcon R, Medina A (2001) Interactions of an arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus with free or co-encapsulated cells of Rhizobium trifoli and Yarowia lipolytica inoculated into a soil plant system. Biotechnol Lett 23:149–151
Walkley A, Black IA (1934) An examination of DEGTJAREFF method for determining soil organic matter and a proposed modification of the chromic acid titration method. Soil Sci 37:29–38
Whittaker C, Mcmanus MC, Smith P (2013) A comparison of carbon accounting tools for arable crops in the United Kingdom. Environ Model Softw 46:228–239
Wu QS, Xia RX (2006) Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi influence growth, osmotic adjustment and photosynthesis of citrus under well-watered and water stress conditions. J Plant Physiol 163:417–425
Xu P, Liang LZ, Dong XY, Xu J, Jiang PK, Shen RF (2014) Response of soil phosphorus required for maximum growth of Asparagus officinalis L. to inoculation of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. Pedosphere 24:776–782
Yoshida S, Forno DA, Cock DH, Gomez KA (1976) Laboratory manual for physiological studies of Rice, 3rd edn. IRRI, Los Banos, Laguna, Phillipines
Funding
The authors received financial assistance and AMF consortia from the TERI (The Energy and Resources Institute), New Delhi, India, to carry out this study.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of Interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Additional information
Publisher’s note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Varinderpal-Singh, Kunal, Sharma, S. et al. Optical Sensing and Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi for Improving Fertilizer Nitrogen and Phosphorus Use Efficiencies in Maize. J Soil Sci Plant Nutr 20, 2087–2098 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42729-020-00277-z
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42729-020-00277-z